Splayfoot bandage



Feb 1967 H. HORLACHER SPLAYFOOT BANDAGE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 29,1964 INVENTOR HEINRICH HORU-WHER ATTORNEY Feb 14, 1967 H. HORLACHER3,303,842

SPLAYFOOT BANDAGE Filed Jan. 29, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.HE/NE/CH HOELflCf/EE,

United States Patent 3,303,842 SPLAYFOOT BANDAGE Heinrich Horlacher,Lutzenberg, Switzerland Filed Jan. 29, 1964, Ser. No. 341,032 1 Claim.(Cl. 128-80) The present invention is concerned with an improved bandagefor the ball of a human foot to assist in correcting injury theretoresulting from the deformity of splayfoot, that is, a foot that isabnormally flattened and spread out.

The present invention will prevent the vfoot-arch from becoming fiat,and by assisting the natural restoration of the foot, will return thefoot back to its normal form.

The bandages hitherto designed for such purposes are elastic in thelongitudinal direction of the foot and nonextensible across the width ofthe foot, but have the inconvenience that the recess provided to take upthe arched part of the foot near the joint of the great toe does notadapt itself to the various bone deformation which may occur at thisplace through the displacement of the metatarsal bone and the phalangeof the great toe, caused by splayfoot. Therefore, in the prior art, thebandage may either slip from its position when walking, or theunyielding edges of the bandage across the width of the foot may hurtthe wearer of the bandage.

The improved splayfoot bandage of the present invention will adaptitself to almost any deformation of the foot which might occur near thegreat toe. Another advantage of the present improved bandage is that itis of such symmetrical design that it can be worn either on a right footor on a left foot.

An embodiment of the object of the present invention is shown by way ofexample in the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows the bandaged foot with the bandage of the present inventionapplied to the foot;

FIG. 2 shows the unwound principal part of the bandage of the presentinvention with a special insert piece sewn to one of its ends;

FIG. 3 shows the spread-out special insert piece;

FIG. 4 shows a side view of the assembled special insert piece ready tobe sewn on the principal part of the bandage;

FIG. 5 shows part of the bandage in the process of making it up;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the finished assembled cup structure ofthe insert piece with diamond-shaped center piece and the end tabs withthe pairs of edges sewn together;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view from the outside of the complete assembledbandage of the joint connecting the two ends of the long principal partof the bandage showing portions of the insert piece which is sewn on theinside of the long principal piece; and

FIG. 8 shows the structure on the inside of the complete assembledbandage of the joint connecting the two ends of the long principal partof the bandage, showing the cup structure of the insert piece of FIG. 6sewn onto the principal part and across the joint between its ends.

The principal part 1 of the bandage, before being assembled, as will beseen in FIG. 2, has a symmetrical geometrical form so that, when foldedacross its narrower middle part on line E-E, the two halves of theprincipal part will exactly cover each other. When the two ends 2 and 4of part 1 are sewn together along the line 6-6a (FIG. 5), the slantingedges 3 and 5 and the slanting edges 3a and 5a will form angularcut-outs or recesses 13 and 14 as shown in FIG. 5. The principal part 1of the bandage is formed from a cotton fabric material which is elasticlaterally of the band in the direction of the line 6-6:: in FIG. 5(shown transversely ruled), but nonextensible in the directionperpendicular to that line, that is, across the foot and along the longdimension of the band. W is the central vertical transverse axis ofprincipal part 1, and ZZ is the central horizontal longitudinal axis ofprincipal part 1.

The insert piece 7 of FIGS. 3 and 4 is formed by cutting the fabric intothe geometrical form shown in FIG. 3 in which pairs of edges 8, 9, and8a, 9a and 8b, 9b and 8c, 96 are formed. The sewn-together edges 8a, 9aand 8b, 9b are shown transversely ruled in FIG. 4. The insert piece 7has diamond-shaped central portion 7a and two rectangular end tabs 7b,70. In FIGS. 3 and 4, the central horizontal longitudinal axis ofdiamond-shaped central portion 7a is shown at YY.

The insert piece 7 is formed from a flexible cotton fabric materialwhich is elastic in the direction of the short side of the insert piece,and non-extensible in the direction of its long side. When the edges 8and 9, 8a and 9a, 8b and 9b and 8c and 9c of the insert piece 7 arerespectively sewn together by pairs, it takes the form of a cuplikestructure as shown in FIG. 4.

The folded part 113-11 (FIG. 4) of the insert piece 7 placed inside ofthe assembled tube-like bandage 1, and the ends 2, 4 of principal part 1of FIG. 5 are sewn together. In FIG. 5, SS is the vertical central axisof bandage 1 which passes through the mid-point of line 6-6a. The dashlines 12 and 12a of the insert piece 7 of FIG. 4 are sewn onto the edges3 and 5 of principal part 1, and the dash lines 12a are sewn onto theedges 3a and 5a of FIG. 5. The triangular parts of the insert piece '7which bridge over the angular cut-outs of recesses 13 and 14 (FIG. 5)are thus elastic in the direction of the width of the foot. This enablesthe wearer to slip the bandage easily over the arch of the deformationof the great toe. Owing to its elasticity, the completed bandage withits recess will fit perfectly around the arch. Furtherrnore, there willbe no undue depressions of the bandage on the places designated by A, B,C, D (FIG. 1).

The direction of extensibility of principal part 1 is shown in FIG. 1 bythe substantially vertical lines 219, and the direction of extensibilityof insert piece 7 is shown by the substantially horizontal lines 19 intriangular portions A, A, A" and B, B, B of the insert piece 7.

FIG. 6 shows in perspective the cup structure of the insert piece whenedges 3, 9, and 8a, 9a and 8b, 9b and 8c, 9c are respectively sewntogether in pairs, thus attaching together the diamond-shaped piece 7::and the end tabs 7b and 7c.

FIG. 7 shows in perspective from the outside of the complete assembledbandage the joint between the ends 2, 4 of the long principal piece 1 asseen from the outside or" the bandage, with portions of the insert pieceshowing through notches 13, 14. The end tabs 71;, 7c of insert piece 7are respectively sewn to edges 3, 3a and 5, 50 along lines 15, 16, 17,18.

FIG. 8 shows from the inside of the complete assembled bandage theapplication of insert piece 7 to the joint between the ends 2, 4 of longprincipal piece 1. The diarnond piece 7a is sewn by its edges 9, 9a, 9b,to end tabs 71:, 7c of the insert piece 7. The horizontal central axisof the diamond piece 7a is shown at TT. The assembled cup structure ofthe insert piece is sewn on lines 15, 16, 17 and 18 to the ends 2, 4 oflong principal piece 1.

Owing to the insert piece 7 which is elastic in one direction, theassembled splayfoot bandage described is thus elastically extensiblelongitudinally in the areas A, A, A" and B, B, B (FIG. 1). The newbandage is easier to fit onto the foot and is better held in place thanwas the bandage heretofore known which was entirely non-extensiblelongitudinally along its whole width.

The new bandage can be slipped over the foot more easily and will adaptitself to almost any kind of deformation near the big toe. It will beheld better in place once slipped over the foot than was the previousknown bandage and will not slip out of position. It will not hurt thefoot around the longitudinal edges of the bandage because, now, part ofthese edges are extensible compared to the wholly non-extensible edgesof the bandage heretofore known. One and the same new bandage, becauseof its symmetrical geometrical cut, will fit a left foot as well as aright foot, whereas this was not possible with the bandage heretoforeknown which had to be made either for a right foot or for a left footand were not symmetrical.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the presentinvention is subject to modifications to adapt the same to particularapplications, and all such modifications which are within the scope ofthe appended claim are considered to be comprehended within the scope ofthe present invention.

What is claimed:

In a splayfoot fabric bandage, a principal long part having two endseach having a transverse terminating centr-al edge and slanting edgesextending laterally from said central edge, said two ends being sewntogether in a joint on said central edges to form a band, and an insertpiece sewn to the ends of said principal piece on said joint, saidprincipal piece being elastic across the short dimension laterally ofthe band and non-extensible along the long dimension of the band, andsaid insert piece being elastic in one given direction andnon-extensible in a direction perpendicular to said one given direction,said insert piece being sewn to said principal piece in such a mannerthat the direction of elasticity of said insert piece is substantiallyperpendicular to the direction of elasticity of said principal piece,whereby said bandage is provided with a recess to take up the archedpart of the foot near the joint of the great toe, said insert piecebeing cut from a substantially rectangular piece of fabric and havingtwo notches cut in each of two opposite edges, said notches extendingtoward each other but not meeting and forming a diamond-shaped structurein the central portion of said insert piece, said insert piece beingnon-extensible in the direction of the two opposite sides in which saidnotches are cut, and elastic in the direction perpendicularly to saidtwo opposite sides in which said notches are cut, the two adjacent edgesof each of said four notches being sewn together separately for therespective notches, and said two sewn together central edges and saidfour slanting edges of said two ends of said principal long part beingsewn centrally on to said insert piece.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,351,248 8/1920Hill 128166 1,727,897 9/1929 Myers et al. 128165 2,572,152 10/1951Horlacher 128166.5 X 2,786,206 3/1957 Steiner 128432 X RICHARD A.GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT E. MORGAN, Examiner.

J. W. HINEY, JR., Assistant Examiner.

